High Waters Past & Present: The National Weather Service was forecasting northwest gales of up to 40 knots (46 mph) on Lake Superior until tonight and also warned western U.P. motorists to expect “some slick spots on area roads and sidewalks today due to the freezing of slush and standing water from yesterday’s thaw.” A winter weather advisory continues in Wisconsin’s Iron County and in the Keweenaw Peninsula and western U.P. in Michigan until this evening. Several inches of lake-effect snow were anticipated in those areas today stretching to light snow all along the Lake’s south shore. Overnight lows below freezing are good news for areas worried about flooding dangers from fast melting of higher-than-average snowfalls. The Bayfield Peninsula region especially has been on alert after major flooding and flood damage in 2016 and 2018. That region also has a long flood history, including the devastating flood of 1942, to which the National Weather Service has devoted a webpage with photos from The Bayfield Heritage Association (one seen here). That year in July, flood waters divided the city of Bayfield while “for 12 hours, intermittent heavy rainfall inundated the city.” Ultimately, Bayfield got 8.68 inches of rain and Ashland 3.01 inches in that period. The ensuing flood waters “rushed through the business district of Bayfield, Wisconsin, creating ‘gullies 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep in places’ (Swenson, 1942). The rushing waves of water forced large boulders loose upon the city and into area businesses. Across the city, the flood waters deposited up to 5 feet of sand, burying many doorways and windows of local businesses and homes.” Caskets and bodies were unearthed in the cemetery and more than $750,000 in damage ($11.7 million in 2017 dollars) was reported. Only one fatality – a dog – was recorded despite the devastation.
Ice, Nice: Lake Superior’s ice cover hit a peak of 94.9% coverage very briefly this year, according to NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), but thanks to rain and warmer temperatures, that percentage has dropped to less than 85% today. These MODIS satellite images also show how our Lake can disappear from view when clouds move in (the first image is Tuesday, the second yesterday). Today GLERL posted an image (seen here) showing ice concentrations, ranging from nearly 100% in the center to open water on some shores. Determining ice coverage can be tricky. Most researchers and folks like the U.S. Coast Guard turn to data collected by the U.S. National Ice Center. Walter Clark, with NIC, sent us an email about Lake Superior information gathered there this year, noting "To us, 100% ice coverage either means a solid sheet of ice, or ice so compacted together you could probably skip and jump across the cracks between the ice floes. I think the most accurate way to say this would be that all of Lake Superior was covered by a majority of ice for the first time since 2015. … The notable thing here is there’s usually an open patch of water somewhere between the end of the Keweenaw Peninsula and Whitefish Bay. This year, ice moved to close that normal hole where the water is deepest, and more ice refroze in the gaps that were created. So for those few days around March 7th, the ice really couldn't go much of anywhere and just jostled about. If we had experienced another deep freeze, we might have actually seen something close to 100% coverage, as all that ice would have started to fuse together." With 31,500 square miles of surface area, Lake Superior is subject to a fair amount of evaporation in winter months without ice coverage. From 1973 to 2010, according to Great Lakes Integrated + Assessment at Michigan State University, average ice coverage on the Lake has declined by 79%.
Ice, Naughty: While Lake Superior benefits from some nice ice cover, your roof does not, and regional insurance agencies are bracing for a bad year for claims of ice-dam damage in homes, according to a story by Martin Moylan for MPRNews. Water and other ice-dam damage often is covered by homeowners insurance, although the cost of having the snow and ice removed from a roof is not. If you have those long, nasty looking icicles hanging from your roof, you might want to think about contracting for their removal.
Potholes Aplenty: Some regions of the country have spring. We have the season of serious potholes when those roadway hazards wait with hungry, surprisingly deep, jaws to misalign our tires or worse. Many folks, including some real experts, are saying that this year is an exceptionally bad year. In Duluth, even Mayor Emily Larson joined a press conference about potholes on Thursday, covered by Kristen Vake for CBS3. Duluth's street maintenance crews are using “cold mix” for temporary fixes until the weather warms. The state of Virginia’s Department of Transportation had our favorite pothole primer (seen here) explaining the cause. AAA tells us Americans pay about $3 billion a year to repair vehicles damaged by potholes. Slow down, make sure tires are properly inflated, check struts and shock absorbers to make sure they’re in good condition and try to avoid those ominous looking puddles, AAA advises. If we get to feeling too sorry for ourselves over Midwestern potholes, by the by, AAA published some interesting statistics in 2016. While 5 percent of U.S. drivers – about 16 million motorists – report sustaining vehicle damage that requires repair as a result of hitting a pothole at least once in the last five years (average repair cost, $300), the Midwest has the lowest percentage of reports: 10% of drivers in the Midwest, 15% in the West, 16% in the South and 20% in the Northeast. In Canada, a 2016 study by the Canadian Automobile Association found that Canadians say they pay $1.4 billion per year in pothole damages, with more than 50% of drivers having experienced pothole damage to their vehicle and 32% reporting having paid $250 to $500 (Canadian, of course) on pothole-related vehicle damage within the last five years. Sometimes laughing is an alternative to raging, so our friend Lynn Wegner of Duluth’s Park Point sent this photo with a note: “Fisherman catches a nice dinner in the middle of the street in one of the many deep potholes on Park Point. Disclaimer: Don’t permit your grandkids to do this. This is for old guys only.” Old guys, we should note, who know to get out of the road quickly.
Smokey the Beaver?: A doctorial geological sciences student and beaver dam enthusiast at the University of Colorado Boulder produced a stop-motion video that shows how the often maligned beaver should really get more respect. “Beavers are the keystone species and ecosystem engineers,” Emily Fairfax told Jaclyn Law in a story for Cottage Life. “When beavers move into a landscape, they completely modify its physical aspects to suit their habitat. When they do that, they also create a complex wetland system, including habitat for other animals.” Their dams can also become effective fire barriers and places of refuge, something she shows in the video. Emily first got to know beaver dams while leading canoe trips in northern Minnesota. Back then, she thought them a nuisance, but, she adds, “It hit home that humans aren’t the only ones changing the landscape. That interest in wetlands and beavers stuck with me, and I finally decided I like this enough to turn it into my career.”
Cut Winter Short(s): Our Lake Superior Magazine upstairs neighbors at Swim Creative in Duluth have hit on a way to make winter shorter – or at least “shorts-er.” For the seventh year, Swim’s creators will park themselves outside with free Arco coffee and prizes, 7:30-8:30 a.m. Tuesday (March 19) for Shorts Against Winter, encouraging people to “wear shorts to rebel against the weather.” (Benjamin Luoma, the company’s director of interactive media, does just that here from earlier years.) Prizes will be given to those dressed in their finest summer garb, so dress not-warmly and stop by Swim Creative’s office at 310 East Superior Street in downtown Duluth, flex your calves and enjoy a cup of joe on Swim Creative. If you can’t make the coffee hour, still dress for summer and post those sun-deprived legs via social media using #shortsagainstwinter.
Photo & graphic credits: The Bayfield Heritage Association via NWS; Virginia DOT; Lynn Wegner; NOAA MODIS; NOAA GLERL; Emily Fairfax; Swim Creative